Admit it. You miss it.

The drama. The gaffes. The ludicrous attacks and counterattacks. Ordinary plumbers plucked from Midwestern obscurity and dumped unceremoniously upon the national stage.

Wasn’t that a party!

Sadly, a presidential transition is a lot less interesting than a political campaign. For more than two years, many of us have been addicted to the longest running reality show in American history.

It was a good, long ride, but it’s over.

What we don’t miss are the clichés, the words that are so shopworn they have become entirely disconnected from their original meanings.

When, for instance, was the last time you saw an actual limelight?

Joe the Plumber knows the word well, or at least he should. His name is connected with it 31,000 times by the search engine Google, most often preceded by the word “thrust.”

But Joe can’t hold a candle, let alone a limelight, to Sarah Palin, who was described 143,000 times as “basking” or “stepping” into its bright light.

Most have long forgotten that a limelight was created by burning a chunk of lime and casting its magnified light upon a stage, apparently well before no-smoking rules in theaters.

Gov. Palin was the object of another political cliché – the “field day.” This word is nearly always preceded by “the press” or “the media.” And, oh, the “field days” we enjoyed, what with her wardrobe, hairstyle, high heels and even her kids’ names.

A media field day conjures up delicious images of pudgy little guys wearing thick glasses skipping through meadows armed with pencils and tablets.

Which is close to the original meaning: periodic “intervals of eating and drinking” designed to improve the morale of troops in the 1700s.

And how about “pundits?” This word has come full circle from the Sanskrit “pandit,” a learned man and scholar, to its current meaning: a loud, angry lout with a microphone.

Which leads us to the many “dog-and-pony shows” conducted during the campaign, as when Barack Obama went to Afghanistan and Europe, when Hillary Clinton claimed to have dodged bullets in Afghanistan and almost anytime Palin appeared with John McCain.

Many of us would prefer, no doubt, to have lived in the 19th century, when small, traveling circuses actually presented small dogs riding on the backs of ponies.

Those were the days!

Which must have been the watershed years of American political language, back when candidates not only wore hats, but tossed them into boxing rings, probably after a few drinks, challenging the champ to a fight.

Shortly afterward, they would no doubt “throw in the towel” (as candidates do in their concession speeches today), after being beaten senseless not by attack ads, but by their opponents’ fists.

Most curious, perhaps, is the whole notion of “stumping,” conjuring as it does images of candidates with wooden legs hobbling across the rural landscape in search of votes.

In actuality, this is derived from the old practice of candidates leaping upon tree stumps to deliver their speeches, although we doubt either McCain, Obama or Biden has ever delivered remarks from a stump.

Palin? Well, anyone who can field dress a moose may have campaigned from a stump, tossed a hat in the ring and conducted a dog-and-pony show under an actual limelight.

And, yes, we’ve had a field day writing this.